A railroad reunion in the Dells. Three steam locomotives that operated at the Milwaukee County Zoo will be in action at the Riverside and Great Northern Railway in the Dells, where the engines were built.

“This is real railroad equipment,” explained the railway museum’s Jim Schulz. “They (the Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works) used plans from the CNNW and just scaled it down to about 1/3 the size of the big trains from back in the day to operate on 15-inch gauge track.”

The Dells railway acquired the oldest engine in 1990, with the other two arriving at the museum in 2024 when the zoo train switched to diesel power.“For the first time ever, the 82, the 1916, and the 1924 will all be operating at the same time at our railway,” said Schulz. “So we think that’s pretty special. The place where they were built, they’re going to operate and pull trains all day long.”

The first two weekends in October is our pumpkin train season with these engines in service. And so the kids get a free pumpkin with a train ride. There’s beautiful fall colors and the Dell scenery and three authentic steam locomotives.”